'End the uncertainty with WTO!' MP warns May's deal will lead to 'ENDLESS uncertainty'

BREXITEER Bernard Jenkin has said a no deal exit from the European Union would end the Brexit “uncertainty” – warning Prime Minister Theresa May’s controversial deal would instead create “never-ending uncertainty” for Britons.

The prominent Tory backbencher warned against the controversial backstop proposal, a last-resort plan to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland which remains to be the key sticking point throughout the Brexit process. Sir Bernard told Sky News: “Nobody is enjoying the present uncertainty and we can end the uncertainty very much more quickly by leaving without a Withdrawal Agreement. But we are prepared to compromise and vote for the Withdrawal Agreement if we sort out this dreadful backstop.

“That’s how far the Leavers are prepared to compromise. Let’s see some compromise from the other side.”

In response, Sky News presenter Gamal Fahnbulleh asked: “Could you not end the uncertainty by supporting the Prime Minister’s deal?”

The Brexiteer replied and said: “It would create a never-ending uncertainty because we will be entering an agreement which we might never be able to get out of. At least you can leave the European Union.

“As the Withdrawal Agreement is currently constituted, as the Attorney General explained to the House of Commons, there is no means of the United Kingdom deciding to leave that arrangement unilaterally.

“We would require the permission of the European Union. No responsible House of Commons could vote for such an agreement which is why it lost by 230 votes.”

Theresa May has been pleading with Brussels to make key changes to the backstop proposal in order to get a Parliamentary majority on her Brexit deal.

So far, Mrs May has been attempting to pressure European Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk to “reopen” her draft EU withdrawal agreement and deliver “significant and legally-binding” changes to the backstop.

But both Mr Tusk and the European Commission President have both warned her that the EU will not reopen the withdrawal agreement.

Martin Selmayr, the Commission’s secretary-general, told MPs from the Commons’ Brexit Select Committee that Brussels would reopen the deal to stitch in letters from the EU presidents that insist the backstop is temporary and “not a trap”.

The MPs said Mr Selmayr had suggested that the Withdrawal Agreement could be reopened to include the letters to make them legally binding within the deal.

Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, has also suggested making political declaration “more binding” to help convince MPs that there are plans in place to avoid the backstop.

But this all falls short of Brexiteer demands for the backstop to be time-limited or include a unilateral exit mechanism.

An EU diplomat said: “We really wouldn't accept a backstop which in essence or practice would be time-limited.”